


detached

by spoopdeedoop



Category: In the Heights - Miranda/Hudes
Genre: GRRRRRRR, Grrrr, M/M, No Smut, but uh, hahah sorry, happy birfmday ari, i botched the ending again, this is ari's late birthday present lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:46:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27483691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoopdeedoop/pseuds/spoopdeedoop
Summary: “Today was a mistake.”“I mean. Pretty sure I told you that more than once as we were heading for the club.”“WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP ME.”“You were paying for the drinks.”(or: benny and usnavi get back from the club. they decide to do a few things.)
Relationships: Benny/Usnavi (In the Heights)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





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**Author's Note:**

  * For [yo_let_me_get_a_milkyway](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yo_let_me_get_a_milkyway/gifts).



> happy late birthday ariiiiiii
> 
> imma go read some of your fanfics now

Usnavi knows a few things.

Number one: they had been in the club. Not a lot had really happened there; it had really just been a retreat from the recent stress the bodega has conjured. An attempt to drink the pain away. Which didn’t end well.

Number two: he is currently drunk. This can be proved by the fact that he can barely stand and that there isn’t a single coherent thought in his head right now. None of his limbs are coordinated and he keeps leaning on things. Mainly Benny.

Number three: Benny is  _ also  _ drunk. It is possible that he’d had more than Usnavi had, but Usnavi can’t really focus on numbers right now. Benny seems to be able to walk, though, so there’s that. 

Usnavi also knows that they’re trying to get back to the bodega. Which is proving to be a  _ little  _ bit of a struggle. 

Benny seizes Usnavi’s arms as he falls back into his chest for the fifth time. “C’mon, dude,” he says. “You didn’t have that much.”

“If you’re implying that I’m a lightweight-” Usnavi doubles over, waits for the puke to show itself, then straightens up when nothing threatens to come up, “You are very fuckin’ mistaken.” He points a decisive finger at Benny and almost walks into a pole. 

“Hm.” 

“Was that-” Usnavi searches for the word, but he can’t find it. He stops in the middle of the street and presses a finger to his mouth, pensive. “Was. Was that, uhhhhhhhh. Fuckin - goddammit, was that-”

“ Skepticism?” Benny smirks, and okay, that’s kinda hot. “Yeah. Come on.” He takes Usnavi gently by the shoulders. “The bodega is  _ this  _ way.” 

“Oh. Haha. I knew that.”   
  


Usnavi fumbles with the keys as they near the shop, his hands clumsy with both fatigue and alcohol. “Oh geez.” His stomach swirls. “Today was a mistake.”

“I mean. Pretty sure I told you that more than once as we were heading for the club.”

_ “WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP ME.” _

“You were paying for the drinks.”

Usnavi rolls his eyes and brandishes the key at the lock, missing the keyhole a few times before finally managing to insert it and twist. He rolls the grate upwards, creating a gap just big enough for them both to get through. Or in Usnavi’s case, stumble into. 

“Jesus,” Benny says as Usnavi opens the door. “Don’t die.”

“‘M not-” He breaks off as he leans against the counter, squinting up at the ceiling. “‘M not gonna die.”

“Okay. Good.” Benny grins at him, and oh no, that’s kind of cute.

Usnavi straightens up and tries to ignore Benny’s eyes on him. Instead, he decides to stare very hard at the cash register, wondering how much money the bodega had made today and if it’d be enough to pay off the amount of alcohol he’d been consuming lately and definitely  _ not  _ thinking about kissing his best friend. Nope. Not ever. No scandalous thoughts in this brain, oh no.

“So. Um.” He straightens up. 

“Yeah. Uh.” 

“How are you?”  
  
“Better than how you are.”

“Ha.”

Usnavi stares up at Benny for a long moment. Studying his face. His eyes. His  _ lips,  _ stained red from the wine and.

Oh.

“Navi,” Benny says suddenly, and Usnavi breaks eye contact, flustered. Worried Benny might call him out for staring too hard and/or too much. But when he tentatively glances up again, there’s no judgemental expression. It was something else. 

A silent request for approval.

Benny inches forward slowly. “I’m gonna do something very stupid.” Not a question. A statement.

Usnavi swallows. “You do a lot of stupid things.”

  
  


It happens very slowly. Usnavi has plenty of time between not kissing and kissing to decide whether he wants this or not. Whether this is a drunken mistake. Whether his heart just needs something to go right today or whether he actually wants this moment with this person. 

His alcohol ridden-brain can’t really decipher the difference between wanting and needing right now, though. 

He lets Benny do it. It’s soft and chaste and it tastes like cheap wine and the chocolate bar Benny had after they left the club and he can feel a hand rest against the nape of his neck and.

Okay.

This is nice.

He’s seen Benny kiss girls before (more than once; Benny likes to indulge in the fact that he actually is attractive and that people want to be with him. Not that Usnavi’s ever found that hard to notice.), but he’s never been in the position of being kissed by Benny. Why should he ever be? They were friends. Only friends.

Well. The title “friends” can officially be thrown out the window now.

He feels the warmth leave his lips and he feels Benny’s eyelids flutter against his cheek. Usnavi glances up at his definitely-can’t-fit-under-the-term-friend-anymore. 

Benny’s lips curve upward. “Why you staring at me like that?”   
  


It takes Usnavi a while to realise that  _ he  _ was the one receiving this soft tone of voice. The one Benny reserved especially for his love interests (Usnavi has watched all of Benny’s relationships rise and fall close enough to know this). It was his now.

It takes a while for him to find his voice again. “I- I was just - wondering - w-why you did that.” A weak excuse of an answer, but all he could muster at the moment. The kiss has sort of partially woken Usnavi up from his alcohol-induced trance, and now he was silently panicking. Does he want this? 

_ Yes,  _ sounds in his head like a klaxon.  _ Yes yes yes. _   
  


“You know. Because. That’s not a thing we. Usually do.” He rattles on, hyper aware of Benny’s hand still on his shoulder and the fact that he hadn’t backed away yet. 

Benny smiles softly, and Usnavi has just died inside approximately eight times.

“No,” Benny breathes. “It isn’t.”

Their lips reconnect, and it’s the same as before. No fireworks, just warmth from every direction. It’s different to the other kisses Usnavi’s been subject to. Maybe it was because he was more experienced. Because this was his first time with a dude. Because he actually feels something for this person. Because it was this person.

Benny.

_ Benny. _

They part again.

Benny suddenly laughs. “Wow.”

“Hm?”

“I wanna do that again.”

Usnavi still knows that they’re both drunk. He still knows that there’s a possibility they’d regret this in the morning. But he doesn’t want to worry about that. Future Usnavi can deal with it.

He leans in again. “Do it, then.”


End file.
